2 Species of Shark Denied Protection

Delegates to an international conservation group have rejected an EU plan to protect two species of sharks, the spiny dogfish and porbeagle.

The proposal to limit trade was turned down by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, meeting in The Hague, the BBC reported.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization lobbied against the EU plan, leading a number of delegates to change their votes. The group’s assistant director general, Ichiko Nomura, argued that the fisheries for the two species can be managed.

Sarah Fowler of the World Conservation Union said that after stocks of the porbeagle — a large shark found in the North Atlantic — were fished out in European waters, fishermen began catching the species on the other side of the Atlantic.

It took only six years to deplete that fishery; and it has not recovered, she said.

Sharks reproduce slowly, making them vulnerable to over fishing.

The spiny dogfish, a small schooling shark, often appears in British fish and chips shops, labeled as rock salmon.